A blanc de Chine pierced brushpot (or bitong) Dehua, late Ming Dynasty, Circa 1640. © Henry Manners 

Of an ivory-toned body carved with peony blooms and foliage with incised surface decoration.

The dating of certain groups of blanc de chine has undergone a reassessment in recent decades partly as a result of the many pieces found in the Hatcher shipwreck, dateable to around 1643, and the study of inscribed and dated pieces. It has been established by scholars such as John Ayers, and in a series of exhibitions by S. Marchant & Sons, that much was made in the later years of the Ming Dynasty.

Another brushpot with pierced key-fret design bears an inscription stating that it was made by the Lin family in the reign of the Tianqi Emperor (1620-1627), and another offered by S. Marchant & Sons in 2006 is dated ‘Summer, ren zi year’ or 1612.

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A very similar brushpot in the Schatzkammer of the Munich Residenz (along with a matching basin) (slide 2), has elaborate silver-gilt mounts with a finial formed as an enamel frog which are thought to be Paris goldsmiths work. The vessel has a glass liner to make it usable as an ewer.

Much later blanc de chine was made for the European export market, but a brush holder such as this would have been intended for the Chinese domestic market.

Repost from Henry Manners